Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-12-08
Sugar Beets as Drouth Crop.

johnson county (Kan.) correspond
ent of the Country Gentleman writes
While was laying in my supply of seed
last spring, in order to have my expert
ments extended as far as possible,
bought four pounds of sugar-beet seed
Now that we have passed perhaps the
worst drouth this country has seen for
many years, and the beets are SO far
along as to insure large yield, having
terminated and grown at a time when
blue grass and white clover were being
parched until the ground became almost
bare, the beets show that they have al
most, if not as much, endurance as any
on the list made up by the two gentle
men.
My early potatoes yielded not less than
l2O bushels to the acre. The very early
planted corn will make forty bushels,
while the corn planted in the middle to
the 25th of April will scarcely make more
than fifteen to eighteen bushels to the
acre.
1 have sown millet, and find that the
chinch bugs are the sole possessors of
that, having, on their way from the oat
field, passed right over the beets, and if
they harmed one, have yet to find it
out.
Of course the beets would have been
larger had we had rains sooner. By Aug
ust 81 the most of them measured 5 or 6
inches in diameter, and if I understand
them, as 1 think / DO, when Jack Frost
comes to the front and your clover and
much of your dry season product will
have to go hence, the sugar beets will
then commence to straighten themselves
out for the best growing done in the
whole season. Should they stop now,
they are worth more to the acre this year
than anything we have so far raised, and
this winter my COWS will have their green
feed, while many will be patiently wait
ing for the coming of another spring for
theirs.
[ have another experiment on the way.
| am trying to demonstrate how much an
acre of ground will produce if properly
cultivated. On the 23d of February I
sOwed on one-acre lot oats and peas.
Of this crop harvested on the 18th of
June two tons of green-cut and we'll
matured feed. I Immediately plowed
and planted it in corn of an early variety
drilling it in for iced, not very thick. ]
narrowed this once before coming up,
and at the second blowing that I gave
it, August Is, / sowed it in rye. I ex.
pect good crop of feed from this that
will be as valuable as the oats and peas.
The rye came up we'll and when the
corn is removed I shall have a fine past
ure for cows and calves during late fall
and winter. The rye may be left to
mature, and it may be plowed under for
fertilizer in the spring-bave not yet
determined as to this.
We have had two very poor crop years,
taking the country over. 1 did the best
| could for corn and find very short
crop. [ had good oats that yield fifty
or sixty bushels to the acre, and as stated
before, the potatoes are vey fine and 1
am satisfied with them. Almost every
thing have planted has done well, but
it required hard work. I did not allow
the weeds to divide any of the moisture
with the crops where could help it.
Looking over the field at this date, if
could go back would have planted ten
times as many sugar beets as 1 have, and
would leave out ali corn planted after
April 1.